The rookie has nine goals and 12 assists, while playing on all four lines. Lately he’s been on the fourth line, but only because coach Craig Berube likes his speed at center.

The 25-year-old Austrian has been a mainstay on the Flyers’ penalty-killing unit and shown he can play a defensive role on Sean Couturier’s shutdown line.

His cap hit of $1.1 million is very cap friendly for the Flyers, who have roughly $11.58 million of space on next season’s roster. With Raffl’s extension, the Flyers have 31 of a maximum 50 contracts for next season with five slide-eligible players, so that number could be as low as 26.

Expect them to be very active in filling out that contract limit with college free agents in the coming weeks. As for the Olympian’s contract, it’s pretty firmly cemented in the Flyers’ plans at the NHL level next season thanks to the start he had.

Raffl didn’t make the club’s final roster out of training camp, playing two games with the Adirondack Phantoms (in which he scored a goal and had two assists) before he was called up and never went back. For at least two more seasons, he won’t have to worry about his status.